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AWS

Core Resources​

EC2 Instances​

Start with a t2.micro (free tier eligible). Practice starting/stopping via CLI:

aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-xxxx

Auto-Scaling Groups​

Set up and test with traffic spikes using tools like Apache Bench (ab -n 100 -c 10 <url>). Monitor scaling behavior.

CloudWatch​

Create alarms for metrics like CPU utilization:

aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm --alarm-name HighCPU --metric-name CPUUtilization --namespace AWS/EC2 --statistic Average \
  --period 300 --threshold 80 --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold

IAM and Security​

Fix misconfigured IAM roles. Use aws ec2 describe-instances to check status and roles.

Free Tier Tips​

  • Always-free limits include 750 hours/month of t2.micro EC2.
  • Set billing alarms in CloudWatch to avoid charges (e.g., alert at $5 threshold).

CLI Best Practices​

  • Install AWS CLI, configure with aws configure (access key, secret, region).
  • Alias commands like alias ec2ls='aws ec2 describe-instances' for speed.
  • Prefer CLI over console for automation and troubleshooting in production.

Networking​

VPC​

The private network space. Create with public/private subnets.

Public vs. Private Subnets​

Public route to Internet Gateway (0.0.0.0/0). Private use NAT for outbound.

Security Groups​

Act as firewalls.

Create with:

aws ec2 create-security-group

Check rules:

aws ec2 describe-security-groups --group-ids sg-xxxx